From Competition to Collaboration, with Melissa Davis

Episode 79. “… entrepreneurship can feel really lonely. And the reason that it feels really lonely is because I believe we isolate ourselves based on this competitive, usually adopted, mindset or collective behavior that we have around entrepreneurship. And the reality is that we are part of this amazing, brilliant ecosystem of entrepreneurs, and small businesses and not for profits, in a community. And together we create value for each other and we create value for the community. And the stronger we're connected into that ecosystem, the better we do.”
 Melissa Davis

Melissa Davis is a startup clarity coach & founder of Humanity inc. Her mission is to connect entrepreneurs, leaders, & changemakers, to each other and to the resources they need to create more impact in the world. She believes that when we come together on the shared value of collaboration instead of competition, it has a rapid & compounding effect not just individually, but for the whole community. 

In her conversation with Linda, she shares:

• “… when we can kind of let down that idea of "I have competitors" and "it's my job to do this alone"  because I'm an entrepreneur because I chose to take this path where I have to figure all this out on my own. ... I want entrepreneurs to know, if you have the vision, you have the capacity, and that doesn't mean you have to do it alone.”
• “Having the capacity doesn't mean that you have to have the capacity to do all the little things, you don’t and you won't, and you shouldn't. What it means is that if you have the vision as an entrepreneur, to contribute, to make this impact, to do this thing you see it solving a problem.”
• “… if we can have the broader understanding of what our role is in this bigger ecosystem, then we're better able to perform in it. We're better able to connect with the people around us really effectively and to solve the problem because that's really the goal of entrepreneurship is to solve a problem or an anticipated problem.”
• “… if I can plug in as an entrepreneur and I can see the opportunities to plug into the ecosystem, that means to partner and work with other entrepreneurs and small businesses and not for profits to see the opportunities for my puzzle piece to fit in there, to be guided on designing my business around the idea that I'm a puzzle piece instead of the whole puzzle, then I'll see one, that I'm more successful, and two, I'll just simply be naturally incentivized to do that because, I believe that we'll see more success, less failure rates as entrepreneurs and, happier entrepreneurs if we can do that.”

You can reach out to Melissa through her website HumanityInc.world or connect with Melissa on Linked In.

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